E-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries around the world. One of the key reasons behind its exponential growth in the recent past is the ease of entry and exit that the industry offers. Anyone with some capital and a tech team can launch an E-commerce platform anytime anywhere. The almost nonexistent barriers to entry also mean that competition is fierce in the E-commerce industry and most platforms struggle to gain a decent foothold and sustain it in the long run.
However, as, you would not want to think of going out of business because you somehow failed to grab customer’s attention. It is, therefore, important that you enter the tech industry and E-commerce industry in particular, with a positive mindset and the willingness to take the competition head-on.
The gravity of the competition in the E-commerce industry certainly does not mean that you cannot sustain your place in the long run and will be thrown out of business. However, you need to master the tricks of the trade and should know what cards to play to be able to sustain your place in the long run.
When operating in fiercely competitive and highly volatile ecosystems, you need to be really smart with your marketing and brand management. A smart marketing mix backed by intelligent brand management strategies is a key to business success regardless of what industry the business is operating in. The same theory can be applied to the E-commerce platforms which are struggling to find their place in the market.
Brand management is a vital factor in business successes regardless of industry. Although the basics remain the same, the way brand management works in E-commerce markets can be a bit too tricky. The internet and social media are highly influential tools from a marketing point of view, and they allow customers to post their opinions and feedback on the product or service that they have used.
Moreover, new tech entrepreneurs are entering the market every day, and as a startup, your first priority should be to get your business a spot in the market. This is where branding comes into the picture. Your branding strategies play a role in the client generation and client retention process.
E-commerce platforms are generally smartly designed tech tools, and therefore, you cannot rely on conventional branding methods as they might not be able to produce successful results on their own. Brand management in tech needs to be designed around using tech tools such as machine learning and AI to get desired results. Many new startups struggle because they undermine the importance of Artificial Intelligence and the wonders it can do for your E-commerce platforms.
If used right, AI tools can catalyze your growth in the market without putting a lot of burden on you or your human resource. If you are running an E-commerce platform and are struggling to decide if you should rely on AI or not, here are 5 reasons that will convince you to integrate Artificial Intelligence tools in your E-commerce platform to improve your revenues and the overall brand image
Predictive Marketing
When you are operating in highly competitive markets where your competitor can steal your customer away with a single extra incentive, you need to be very proactive with your strategy. As an E-commerce platform, you are mainly a service business. Your brand should be dynamic in understanding what your customers want and how they want it. Your customers should be able to see the product they wished to see before they actually searched for it. Your customers will feel frustrated if they land on irrelevant products and are forced to scroll ahead to look for what they require. This is where predictive marketing comes into the picture.
It is, of course, impractical and humanly impossible to recruit human resource and dedicate it to monitor customer behavior across the internet so that you can predict results accordingly. However, there are machine learning tools that can efficiently analyze consumer behavior and suggest results according to their preferences.
Reputation Management
A strong brand reputation is important for successful branding. It can be extremely difficult to track the reputation of your brand and manage it in real time. There could be thousands of people talking about your brand on ten different platforms and you might not know about it.
It is important for your brand’s repute that you reach out to customers with negative opinions and address their concerns and capitalize on the ones that have positive experiences to share. You might not be equipped enough to monitor and manage your brand’s reputation and therefore you should invest in hiring a reputation management service. Tools such as Citeninja can help you with reputation building by promoting positive opinions about your brand on major social media platforms using social media influencers.
Personalization
New age customer craves for personal attention. A personalized experience for your customer can translate into a loyal client in the long run. Personalization essentially means that everything that your customer sees on the internet is somehow connected to their current likes and preferences.
This could mean tailored advertisements, customized content and targeted emails that are somehow related to their current interests and activities. Consistently relaying a message that targets a customer’s will trigger him to visit your platform at some point.
Personal Assistance in Real Time
There are numerous times during online shopping when a customer decides to drop his shopping plans just because he did not get the required assistance in time. Customers expect quick and reasonable customer assistance, and it could be difficult to do so when you have hundreds of customers online at a time buying thousands of goods.
Thanks to chatbots and mail bots you can now easily offer personalized assistance to every customer and that too in real time. This enhances the user experience and eventually adds value to your brand.
Smart Search Tools
Imagine you are desperately looking for a product, but you are not able to recall its correct name or how exactly it is spelled. This could be a frustrating situation for you as a customer. These problems can be quickly eliminated by integrating AI based smart search tools. These search tools use algorithms to decipher what exactly you are looking for and rank your search results according to customer reviews to enhance user experience.
Conclusion
The corporate ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and even the non-tech companies are increasing their reliance on technology to increase their market exposure. AI tools are being incorporated in almost every business function in order optimize costs and revenues. AI remains the future of marketing and brand management regardless of industry. E-Commerce platforms will only be able to sustain their competitiveness if they utilize machine learning tools efficiently and are able to attract and retain maximum clientele.

Alycia Gordan is a freelance writer who loves to read and write articles on healthcare technology, fitness and lifestyle. She is a tech junkie and divides her time between travel and writing. You can find her on Twitter: @meetalycia
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